The S&P 500's top gainer, Netflix, jumped 18 percent a day after the video streaming service posted better-than-expected results.

Shares of Etsy Inc, an online marketplace for handmade goods and crafts, were up 88 percent in their market debut. Stock in electronic trading firm Virtu Financial Inc rose as much as 24.6 percent in their IPO in a sign that public angst over "high-frequency" trading is waning.

At 3:12 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average rose 22.28 points, or 0.12 percent, to 18,134.89, the S&P 500 gained 1.38 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,108.01 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.89 points, or 0.02 percent, to 5,011.91.

Major indexes are about 1 percent below record highs despite recent concerns about weakness in first-quarter earnings. That may suggest a profit decline has already been priced into shares, said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

"It's still undetermined whether the first-quarter weakness was weather-related or because of a slowdown," Hellwig said.

First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to have declined 2.6 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data, hurt by low oil prices, a strong dollar and extreme weather in the eastern United States. Revenue is forecast down 2.8 percent from a year ago.

Corporate results so far are showing little organic growth even as they largely beat profit expectations.

SanDisk was off 4.65 percent after its forecast. Philip Morris International's stock surged 8.80 percent after the cigarette maker's revenue and profit fell less than expected in the first quarter.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,592 to 1,423, for a 1.12-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,369 issues fell and 1,344 advanced for a 1.02-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 was posting 8 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 89 new highs and 15 new lows. (Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)